"Displaced by anti-Taliban military operation, Pashtun poets revive their art" by Aamir Iqbal | Washington Post August 02, 2014
BANNU, Pakistan — For more than five centuries, poets in remote northwestern Pakistan have recited verses about the area’s mountainous scenery, their tribal culture, and love.
Related: Pashtun History Lesson
That all changed as Islamist militants tightened their hold on Pakistan’s tribal regions after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The Taliban and their allies quickly crushed the poets’ words and spirits. They were warned not to write phrases that referred to women or serenity and instead ordered to compose jihadist messages of war, brutality, and conformity.
Now about 50 poets are part of a migration of more than 700,000 Pakistanis displaced from the North Waziristan region as the military seeks to dislodge Islamist militants there. And amid the chaos of refugee life, they are restoring tradition to their verses.
More refugees in the region. Great.
‘‘It was so horrible for me, like a nightmare, when they approached me for the first time to make words about slaughtering innocent people part of my poetry,’’ said poet Saleem Khan, 38, who fled North Waziristan for the northwestern city of Bannu. ‘‘How could a poet who has very soft feelings for his land and people become a tool to spread terror?’’
I'm reading one every morning.
Many of the refugees in this northwestern city were abruptly forced to leave their homes and now must endure rationed food, overcrowded housing, and uncertainty about the fate of their livestock.
Gaza, too.
Yet despite those hardships, the refugees are also rediscovering a life free of radical Islamists who effectively ruled North Waziristan for the past decade.
Ah, SWEET LIBERATION, huh?!!
Under the control of the Pakistani Taliban and other insurgent groups, tribal elders had to shed their colorful turbans and instead don the black ones worn by the militants. Traditionally expansive Pashtun weddings were reduced to just a few guests, because the Taliban didn’t allow music and dancing. Residents who once would swap gossip outside under the stars were encouraged to remain indoors after sunset.
Related: The Drone Wars: Pakistan
Well, yeah, you better stay indoors I guess.
‘‘The Taliban’s order was final and no one dared to oppose that,’’ said Muhammad, a 36-year-old shopkeeper, who like many Pashtuns uses only one name. ‘‘You would have been kidnapped or killed to terrorize the others.’’
For the poets, many of whom are now living with relatives here in the dusty city of Bannu, the Taliban rules meant many long years of grief.
That's the life of a poet. They choose that.
They had been carrying out a tradition passed down through generations of their Pashtun forefathers. Initially, the refugee poets said, they resisted their new rulers’ orders to abandon poetry. They gathered in small groups inside darkened shops to recite their words.
‘‘It was a revolution of thought, related to peace,’’ said Shafiuddin, 28.
Eventually, however, all but a handful gave in to the pressure to use their skills to try to advance the cause of Islamist militancy, Shafiuddin and other poets said.
Be careful: that poem may be a bomb.
Readers, I'm sorry for not believing this pathetic piece of agenda-pushing, war-promoting, Muslim-hating propaganda spewing forth from my Zionist War Daily.
What did they do, fold the poem into a paper airplane and call it a drone?
They were called upon to pen memorial messages to suicide bombers, record recruitment messages on audio cassettes, and create slogans for Taliban commanders to recite on the battlefield. The cassettes sold briskly at local markets, in part because residents felt compelled to buy them out of fear.
Think of it as having to deal with a bank, America.
No corporations like we have to scoop up books sales, I'll bet.
When a Taliban commander approached Saleem Khan and asked him to write lyrics for jihadist songs, he said his first thought was, ‘‘I can’t become part of this dirty game.’’
But ‘‘who could dare raise their voice before the Taliban?’’ he recalled wondering.
Who is behind that curtain?
‘‘There was no government, no law, and no court to contest the rights being kept away from me.’’
Then try ISIS. I've heard they can deliver a "degree of order and security that restores a semblance of normal life."
--more--"
Related:
The Middle East Mice That Roared
Of Mice and Men
Transparent mice created to aid research
Here's a man:
"Former Westfield State University president Evan S. Dobelle improperly used hundreds of thousands of dollars from school accounts to pay for such things as frequent personal trips, electronic equipment for personal use, and a portrait of himself, then covered his tracks by filing false reports, according to a scathing new report by the state inspector general."
Related: Former Westfield State president seeking $1.6m in damages
Un-flipping-real!
Related:
Dobelle is Done
Pen$ion in tow, of cour$e.
